I talked {rambled} the other day about being the part of the body of Christ He's created you to be.
Today I was hoping to talk a little about what do do if you're not sure what your gifts and talents are or if you know but feel like you are injured.
Let's start with a figuring out what part of the body of Christ you are. God has uniquely created us all to unfathomably work in sequence with one another to glorify Himself. Just begin asking yourself some simple {bahaha} questions: What are you good at? No, I didn't ask if there was a ministry in existence at your church that you think you could fit into. What do you enjoy doing? What God-given abilities do you have? They don't have to be church-ordained to be usable by God. Get creative. Step outside the box that is the 'church' of today.
Another good post to read is "How to figure out your spiritual gift". But don't get too caught up in list someone else has created on the topic of what is or isn't a God-given gift. This is where many of us close our selves off to being used. God is bigger than we could ever imagine. Any talent/ability He has given you is ultimately for His glory.
The other thing I wanted to address is those in the body of Christ that feel injured. 1st of all, you need to admit you've been hurt. Maybe there was an offense from someone. Maybe you're trapped by perpetual sin. What ever the case, "half the battle is admitting you have a problem." If I had been too embarrassed and not confessed that I hurt my finger the other night while doing something goofy {jumping over a chair} I would have still hurt but would have continued using my thumb before letting it heal. I also would have looked silly trying to continue doing everyday tasks pretending I was fine.
As the body of Christ, we will all suffer if we don't learn to recognize injuries and figure out the proper healing that needs to take place. Do we need to ask people to step out of ministry until they get the right 'medicine'? How can we splint these injured parts of the body by coming along side them to aid them in counseling, rehab or creating an environment that's no longer harmful? The body of Christ as a whole Is Responsible for each and every part of it's body. We are responsible for the entire body's growth, development, training, usefulness and continual health!
Galatians 6:2{ESV}
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Are you being "your brother's keeper" aka are you taking responsibility for the other parts of the body of Christ as you are biblicaly called to do? Do you need someone to take responsibility for you? In your healing?
Sitting in McDonald's watching Titus 2 going down. #Mentoring #BeautifulSight
— Julie Rothacher (@JulesRothacher) March 6, 2012
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I have been thinking for days how to answer this post. I know what my spiritual gifts are for the most part, but six months ago I had no idea… I did a study (Your Devine Design by Chip Ingram) about five or so months ago and it forever changed me and my walk. It was exciting to learn that for the most part I was already living in and using my gifts for the kingdom, but it was so freeing to know what they are so I can fully embrace them and not constantly try to force myself to do things that are outside my gifting. There was one time in the recent past where I was called on to deal with people in a grief situation and for that time I was able to extend great (greater than me) mercy… Not one of my gifts generally, but I did have it for a season as the Holy Spirit saw fit to give it to me… That being said, I know my gifts, and subsequently my part… It is an amazing feeling!
I do highly recommend doing one of the ‘test’ available! I totally agree that knowing what you are or maybe aren’t gifted in can be life changing. I do still warn that, for people like me, who try and answer according to what they are hoping their gifts are or who feel their is a right or wrong way to answer could easily taint the test results ;o) I need to look up a few more places that their kinds of tests are available. I also totally agree that sometimes God does call us to minister in ways outside our natural gifting to show His power but in general I would encourage people to stay within their giftings and encourage church bodies to allow them to. Often we don’t like giftings that don’t already fit into an existing ministry “program” so we don’t allow certain individuals to be used.
Thank you sooooo much for sharing. I pray maybe these conversations in the comment sections will help lead to communty and even more discussion!